NXT
Date: December 14, 2010
Location: Cajundome, Lafayette, Louisiana
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Todd Grisham

It’s week 2 of NXT and things are looking good so far. Last week was a good start so hopefully that continues here. I’d like to see more of their characters come out this time though which isn’t something we got to see much of on the season premiere. It’s weird to be getting ready for NXT and to have a positive outlook on it. Let’s get to it.

We open as always, with Striker bringing out the rookies. We’re opening with a karaoke challenge. I already don’t like this. There are six envelopes with wrestlers’ theme songs that they have to sing. O’Brian gets Sheamus and we FINALLY get the official words to Sheamus’ song. Surprisingly it doesn’t say Lobster Head. His voice is all nasal and this is just awful.

Bateman gets Miz. He’s not bad but the pacing is all off. He throws in a shoutout to the college football team which is smart.

Novak gets a pop as he comes up for some reason. He gets Dolph Ziggler, who happens to be his pro. Novak sounds really quite drunk. He more or less just says the words which might be the best course of action.

Clay, the white Viscera, goes third with Cody Rhodes’ song….and doesn’t do half bad. It’s more talking but there was a little flair to it. Best so far.

Curtis gets Orton and gets down in the slither pose. I know nothing about music and I’m not sure if this worked or not. Imagine a guy trying to sing like James Hetfield without having talent and singing Orton’s song and that’s about it.

Saxton is last and draws Shawn Michaels whose name gets a bigger pop than anything else so far. He messes up one of the most famous lyrics in wrestling history. How is that possible? He does dance a bit which helps somewhat. Saxton wins which I guess is the best choice as he was definitely trying.

Masters/Saxton vs. DiBiase/Clay up next.

Profile on Novak who says he used to play every spots, including football. They had a motto on the team: DTD – Determined to Dominate. He says he’s destined to dominate. That’s a good line. Novak says he’s the most like Jack Swagger on the roster and that you have to look out for #1, and that’s him. Kind of a generic promo/character but he sold it quite well.

Chris Masters/Byron Saxton vs. Ted DiBiase/Brodus Clay

See I told you it was up next. You didn’t think I’d lie to you did you? Josh talks about having dinner with Brodus recently and that he’s a fascinating person. He actually comes off as that which is good. The rookies start us off. Clay shoves him around with ease so here’s Masters instead.

After a little back and forth stuff Ted comes in and we actually take a break on NXT. Back with Ted holding a chinlock on Masters. I like this Brodus guy. Masters fights out of the corner but walks into a dropkick from Ted for two. In a funny bit Masters brings in Saxton and in a Shawn Stasiak like moment he charges and is taken down immediately.

Clay hits a huge spinebuster but tags DiBiase back in. A kneedrop misses and Saxton is able to get out and it’s pro on pro again. Another spinebuster, this time from Masters, hits DiBiase as does an accidentally shot from Clay. Masters calls for the Masterlock but Saxton gets a quick tag and walks into Dream Street to end it at approximately 7:00.

Rating: C-. Not a great match or anything but it did its job with Clay looking good for a big man and Saxton getting a bit of character development as being a headstrong guy that isn’t as good as he thinks he is. This worked ok though and wasn’t a bad match at all.

We go to the back where Bateman is warming up when Bryan comes in. He says that Bateman has a match tonight so Bryan is going to teach him a hold. It’s a heel hook which Bryan demonstrates step by step (Hey kids! Pay attention as the United States Champion shows you a basic way to snap someone’s ankle in three easy steps!) how to do it and tells Bateman to do it now. Bateman goes insane and shouts about how he’s doing submission wrestling while Bryan is telling him what to do. In order to get Bateman to chill, Bryan KICKS HIM IN THE FACE! I told you that was the best solution to a lot of problems! Funny segment.

Obstacle Course time, but this time it’s for TWO immunity points. Novak goes first and does relatively well until he gets to the push-ups where he has to start over. He sets the time to beat at 37.9 seconds.

Saxton goes second and is a jerk to Striker. I guess he’s not all bad. Saxton falls going over the hurdles and slams his head. He can’t do push-ups either and goes over a minute.

O’Brian is third but messes up on the wall/hurdle as well. He can’t do the balance beam that well and winds up getting 42.7.

Bateman is fourth and the referees are REALLY anal about these push-ups. Bateman manages to break the time at 35.7.

Curtis says he’s feeling very gazelle-like and breaks the time but the referees say he messed up on the balance beam so it’s a disqualification.

Brodus Clay is last and literally throws the walls out of his way. Naturally he’s disqualified though.

Curtis gets another chance to a chorus of boos. He destroys the time at 31.4 seconds.

Profile on Curtis who talks about dabbling in a lot of stuff. He and a friend of his trained in a ring in the woods apparently and the friend was killed in a car wreck so he has dog tags on his tights because of it. That’s a cool story.

Raw Rebounds wastes some time.

Jacob Novak hits on Vickie for some reason. Ziggler comes in and asks Vickie to leave. He’s not happy and more or less says hands off. Is there a reason why Vickie is going to be a focal point of a storyline on this show in back to back seasons?

Ad for the 50 Greatest Superstars DVD which might be worth looking at.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Derrick Bateman

This should be short in theory. Alberto asks Ricardo to take out Bateman. Del Rio dominates early on as you would expect him to. The fans aren’t exactly thrilled by this match to put it mildly. Bateman makes a brief comeback and gets a modified neckbreaker. Think the Moonlight Drive that Morrison used back on ECW. Cross Armbreaker ends it in about 3:20. Not much more than a squash.

Rating: C. Really hard to grade this as it’s barely a competitive match. They tend to have one of these a season and I’m not entirely sure I get the point to them. Del Rio has a major match on the PPV so why would we believe that Bateman stands a chance against him? Also, why not have a rookie against Bateman? Either way it wasn’t bad but it was rather short.

Overall Rating: B. Another good episode this week as things continue to look up for this season. We got some character development, two challenges that went by pretty fast and two matches. That’s pretty good for a little under an hour I’d say, especially considering a 3-4 minute Raw Recap plus commercials. I’m liking this 6 man set of rookies as it’s definitely more workable. Nothing bad at all here and some decent stuff make this a solid outing for the second episode of the season. Good show.

NXT
Date: December 7, 2010
Location: Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews

Season Four of NXT debuts tonight with only six rookies this time. That might be a good thing indeed as having the full monty of eight is too many due to there being dead weight amongst them that takes too long to get rid of. This almost has to be better from a quality perspective than last season doesn’t it? Anyway, let’s get to it.

Wild and Young is back. Awesomeness all over again.

Striker brings out the Pros who bring out their rookies. There’s no Cole this season???

R-Truth – Johnny Curtis
Ted DiBiase – Brodus Clay (He is a BIG old boy. Think a white Viscera)
Chris Masters – Byron Saxton
Dolph Ziggler – Jacob Novak
Daniel Bryan – Derrick Bateman
Alberto Del Rio – Conor O’Brian

Striker says the winner gets a championship match but says nothing about PPVs. Everyone is going to get to introduce themselves.

Curtis says he isn’t going to ask people to cheer him. Instead he wants to give some shoutouts, one of which is to his gym teacher. A vote for Curtis is a vote for freedom apparently.

Clay says he’s coming to this with lemon juice and razorblades. This was almost like a rap thing.

Saxton sounds like Token from the News Reporters episode of South Park. This is rather cheesy indeed.

Novak talks about board games, saying his favorite is Monopoly because you get to own your competition, which he’s going to do this season. Not bad.

Bateman says he’s from Ohio and that today will live in infamy (it’s December 7 if you didn’t get the reference) and he’s mantastic.

Conor does a weird voice to get our attention and says he looks like a rat. Apparently he’s going to take the cheese or something like that. Wow indeed.

Alberto yells at him and says he’s boring, just like Daniel Bryan. The obvious tag match is made.

We get a profile on Byron Saxton who is from a privileged background and has never had to really do anything. He’s a good person apparently and we get a clip of him as a kid wrestling. He mentions being a conglomerate type of man, which I think was the stable he led in FCW.

Johnny Curtis vs. Jacob Novak

Fairly nice back and forth match so far. Both guys look decent out there which is why this show works so much better than something like Tough Enough did. Curtis gets a discus lariat for no cover. I’m sorry for the lack of play by play here but I’m trying to check out both guys instead. Novak misses a charge in the corner and Curtis goes up top. After misstepping a bit he hits a decent looking guillotine legdrop for the pin at about 3:05.

Rating: C-. Nothing that great here but it was fast paced and the finish was clean. This doesn’t really tell us anything about either guy though as neither played to the crowd or showed anything unique at all. This was really just a match and nothing else. Nothing bad though.

Profile on Brodus Clay who comes from Pasadena and a broken home. He liked to be with his brother apparently. We hear about him being a bodyguard for Snoop Dog which is interesting I suppose. He’s in business for himself now though.

It’s already time for our first challenge, in this case capture the flag. You have to run down, get a ladder that is set up at ringside, put it in the ring, climb up and get a flag then run back to the stage to win. Curtis goes first with a time of 28.6 seconds.

Conor (that’s how the on screen graphic spells it) is second and gets a time of 28.2 to take over. This is just for an immunity point I think.

Clay is third and as expected he’s strong but not quick. The time is past the mark to beat by the time he hits the floor to come back.

Saxton is fourth and says he’ll just be himself. He has his own way of climbing a ladder? And he loses too due to intentionally taking his time. He tries to jump down which is illegal apparently. He gets a time of nearly a minute.

Novak is fifth and gets a good start at least. It pays off too as he gets 26.9 to take the lead.

Bateman is last and gets cheered by Bryan. He has a chance at it but just barely misses it.

Back with the Raw Rebound to what I thought was an excellent show.

Ted and Maryse talk to Clay. Maryse won’t shut up and Ted yells a bit.

Saxton is getting ready and Masters comes up and they have a bromance moment. Masters wants to give him some workout tips and Saxton says he has it covered.

Daniel Bryan/Derrick Bateman vs. Alberto Del Rio/Conor O’Brian

No intro for the heels. The rookies start us off with O’Brian being rather aggressive. Off to Alberto who beats on Bateman a bit also. No Bryan yet other than trying to get in once Alberto hits him but to no avail. Bateman gets an airplane spin of all things to make the hot tag to Bryan.

Bryan adds an airplane spin of his own as we all channel our inner Gorilla Monsoons. We actually take a break on an NXT match to see Gene Okerlund pitch us old school apparel. Back with Bryan working on the arm of O’Brian. I guess he doesn’t like the O’ part. The pros are in now.

The announcers try to make small talk by saying Alberto’s last name means the River. It actually means of or from the river but who cares about being correct? Ziggler of all people says something on a mic but I’m not sure what it was. According to a guy that was at the show he was yelling that he doesn’t suck to the crowd and didn’t realize his mic was partially on or something. Works as well as anything I guess.

Bateman gets a running neckbreaker for two on Del Rio as Bryan hits a huge dive to the floor to take out O’Brian. Being alone with Del Rio isn’t a good thing as the cross armbreaker ends this a few seconds later at approximately 10:00 (assuming the commercials were in real time for this).

Rating: C+. Not bad at all here with a decent tag match. Bryan is someone that I wasn’t huge on when he got to the company but he’s been nothing but impressive since. This was another decent match for him but the focus was more on the rookies here which is a good thing. Nothing great or anything but for what it was supposed to be, this was perfectly acceptable.

Overall Rating: B-. Nothing great or anything here overall but like the last match it did exactly what it was supposed to do. We saw a little bit from everyone and got four of them in the ring with vignettes from the other two. The rookies look kind of weak this season but the show at least looks ok. Pretty good start.